Sixty-five years after the U.N. partitioned mandatory Palestine, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine a non-member observer state. 138 countries voted in favour, 41 abstained, and 9 rejected. For Palestinians struggling for statehood, it is the beginning towards recognition as a full member state in the international body.
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Though symbolic, the move was a historic recognition for the Palestinians, a step towards a dream that slowly seemed to materialize into reality. The word "PALESTINE" is rooted in the depth of every Palestinian. It means identity for the uprooted people scattered across the world, many driven in 1948 to live in squalid refugee camps, while many others became pillars and builders of countries in the Middle East.
People wept when the vote was announced at the U.N.'s General Assembly in New York today. Delegation members hugged and congratulated Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who defied intense pressure from the U.S. and other Western powers to back down.
Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah and elsewhere in PALESTINE celebrated, danced, and chanted national songs.
"We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a state established years ago, and that is Israel; rather, we came to affirm the legitimacy of the state that must now achieve its independence, and that is Palestine," Abbas said in his historic speech at the U.N.
The Palestinian state that was recognized today is 22 percent of mandatory Palestine: the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital, a victory for the Palestinians, a rebuff to Israel and its allies.But for the move to advance towards peace and a two-state solutio, U.S. meaningful involvement is required.
The hope that was placed on U.S. President Barack Obama after his election in 2009 subsided quickly as he proved unable or hesitant to change the rules of the Amerian game. Like his predecessors, he placed presure on the Palestinian leaders to make unilateral compromises that did not and would not lead to a 2-state solution.
The late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had accepted the Oslo Accords in 1993 as a stepping stone for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. He died without realizing the dream he lived and struggled for. His body was exhumed two days ago to search for evidence that he was poisoned. Peace talks have stalled, and violence replaced peace moves. The state that Arafat sought became cantons divided by walls and checkpoints.
Abbas believed it was now or never. Abbas, a form believer in peace, was determined to win recognition for a state under occupation.He has warned that the window for a two-state solution was closing, and hopes the U.N. recognition would nudge the U.S. to break the impasse and work towards meaningful talks.
The boundaries of Falasteen, or Palestine, the area between the Mediterranean Sea and th Jordan River, have changed over the years.
In 1994, Jordan's King Hussein told me he worked towards peace between Israel and Jordan to protect the borders of his Kingdom. Today, Abbas won recognition for the boundaries of the Palestinian state under occupation.
GGOOOOO Auntie Wafa!! Very nice and long live Palestine <3
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